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MMA News & Rumours from Around the World

Total news: 60
Last news: May 4, 2009 07:32:55

There may be no other sport that is as confused about their training than combative sports. With the immense growth of the UFC, Pride, and other MMA associations, fighters and their coaches have embraced modern strength and conditioning. Coaches still often fall into some very common traps: (more…)

4. Dana White
While the Fertittas are the financial backing and visionaries of the most powerful and popular MMA organization in the world, Dana White is the gas in the tank. He is where the rubber meets the road, if you will. Without him, the UFC would have become just another bad investment that we wouldn’t even remember seven years later, let alone be talking about. The Fertittas own the company, White runs it, and runs it well. One day we will look back on the name, Dana White, and put him into the same sentence with people like Paul Tagliabue, David Stern, Bud Selig, and Don King.

3. The Gracie family It is almost offensive that so many younger MMA fans don’t know the history behind the Gracie name. In the early 1900’s a Japanese immigrant to Brazil, and Jiu-Jitsu and Judo master, named Mitsuo Maeda taught his arts to a young Carlos Gracie, who later taught his new skills to his brothers. The brothers took these fighting styles to the streets of Brazil where they refined, reshaped, and honed the techniques in to what we now know to be Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu… (more…)

If I accosted a MMA fan and pointed out to them that fighters are not actors and that all that “entertainment” on your monthly pay per view is very real I’d probably elicit a very quizzical expression and a “But of course” or “Obviously.” Despite that I have progressively begun to wonder how obvious the very real and very human side to MMA is. It may be obvious when it is pointed out but when one considers what people say and their behavior then those things do not match with it being so obvious. It may be obvious when considered but it does not appear to be apparent moment to moment in the minds of many a follower of MMA.

As we have established, fighters are not actors in a pre-written movie getting paid to play a role. When the show is over it’s not a couple of laughs back stage, a hearty pat on the back for a job well done and onto the next show. To some degree there is jubilant celebration for the winner. However for every winner in mixed martial arts there must be a looser. Someone must be defeated. And I cannot think of a sport more demanding upon the looser then MMA. Not only do they loose, get paid less then the victor, but they also more often then not take a crushing beating in the process… (more…)

Now we go to Affliction MMA. Affliction started off as a very successful clothing company. They have now branched off into becoming an MMA organization. Like Elite XC, Affliction has made a few moves that have caught the UFC’s attention. One major move was to form a partnership with billionaire business mogul Donald Trump. Trump obviously has the money to afford to bring in the best fighters and pay them what they feel they deserve. Another major move is acquiring major talent, especially in the heavyweight division. They were able to bring in some of the best heavyweights in the world such as Andrei Arlovski, Josh Barnett, Ben Rothwell, Pedro Rizzo, Tim Sylvia, and of course the biggest acquisition of them all in Fedor Emelianenko. It is easy to say that Affliction’s heavyweight roster is a little more stacked than the heavyweight roster of the UFC.

With both companies making key moves to show that they are legitimate contenders, the UFC has made a few counter moves of their own. First of all, to counter Affliction’s debut pay per view event, the UFC decided to hold an event on the exact same night. However, the UFC’s event aired for free on Spike TV. On top of that, the main event featured the UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva. Silva moved up to 205 to fight James Irvin. Any match up involving Anderson Silva is a huge pay per view draw, but the fact that he was fighting for free shows that UFC views Affliction as a real threat. When it comes to Elite XC, the UFC have made a few counter moves during their network broadcasts. During Elite XC’s first broadcast, the UFC decided to run a piece focusing on the career of Chuck Liddell. Also, they decided to re-run the fight between Liddell and Wanderlei Silva. Another counter made by the UFC against Elite XC, was this past Saturday during Elite XC’s second event on CBS. The UFC decided to re-run its pay per view which was headlined by Sean Sherk and BJ Penn. UFC President Dana White also decided to make a special announcement during the broadcast. The big announcement was that its next event in England will air for free on Spike TV

It is pretty clear to see that the UFC views both Affliction and Elite XC as legitimate threats. I for one am glad to see some more competition in the world of MMA. I also believe that the real winners in all of this are the fans. Competition forces all of the promotions to put on bigger and better events to out do one another. It would be nice to see some these organizations try to do co-promotions, but knowing the UFC I wouldn’t plan on seeing them do any co-promoting anytime soon. Whatever happens next, it will surely be exciting to see how this all pans out not only for the sport, but for the fans as well.

10. Chuck Liddell / Tito Ortiz 9. Ken Shamrock 8. Forrest Griffin / Stephan Bonnar 7. Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta 6. PRIDE - If Zuffa is responsible for bringing MMA to the mainstream U.S. audience, PRIDE was responsible for bringing MMA to the rest of the world. PRIDE was formed in 1997, and sponsored more [...] - [Read more]

Just as much as everyone loves to see big knockouts similarly everyone loves the flying knee. It has it all. It’s flashy, brutal and can be an instant fight finisher. So without further ado, for your entertainment here is a righteous video from comrad101 with the top 10 flying knees of MMA.

Just as much as everyone loves to see big knockouts similarly everyone loves the flying knee. It has it all. It’s flashy, brutal and can be an instant fight finisher. So without further ado, for your entertainment here is a righteous video from comrad101 with the top 10 flying knees of MMA.

Fedor Emelianenko - Arguably the best fighter of all time. Fedor better secured his argument with his quick work of Tim Silvia. Randy Couture failed to finish Tim Silvia when he won the title from him. In Silvia’s fight against Nogueira Tim put on a good show up until Nogueira was able to secure the submission. Fedor finished Silvia in less than a minute erasing criticism that he had not beat a high caliber fighter in some time.

Randy Couture - As previously stated Randy looked excellent and maybe the best ever in his manhandling of Tim Silvia. Randy did not finish Silvia but however did beat him up and down the cage. Against Gonzaga Randy again proved that he was the champ in beating the man that will forever be know for his knockout of Mirko Cro Cop.

Anderson Silva - Franklin 2x, Nate Marquardt, Travis Lutter, Dan Henderson, Chris Leben, and James Irvin, all these fighters fell to the Spider in his reign of dominance in the UFC. First the Spider dismantled a game Chris Leben in his debut. He knocked out a fighter who was known for his ability to slug and take a hit. Then he dismantled Franklin in a title fight. Keep in mind Franklin had been on a big winning spree and had looked very good standing up till this point… (more…)

9. Ken Shamrock
Shamrock was just as cocky and abrasive as Tito Ortiz, only long before Tito knew who he was, let alone us knowing who Tito was. Shamrock was a brawler with an anger issue, and would channel his anger into one hell of a great fighting career. Shamrock started early on being trained as a pro wrestler, but eventually fell into Pancrase, a version of MMA and hybrid wrestling (not pro wrestling), where he became a fierce competitor. Shamrock competed in the first UFC competition in 1993, where he made it to the semi-finals, but lost to eventual tournament winner, Royce Gracie. Within his first 25 MMA contests, Shamrock amassed a great record of 19 wins, 4 losses, and two draws.

Shamrock proved to be quite a force in MMA, then, in what appeared to be his prime fighting years, Shamrock abandoned real fighting in favor of pro wrestling and the WWE (WWF at that time). This might have seemed ridiculous, but people underestimate the loyalty of pro wrestling fans. When Shamrock ultimately came back to the MMA circuit, he brought thousands of fans with him. Shamrock single-handedly introduced MMA to hundreds of thousands of people who otherwise wouldn’t have even thought twice about MMA… (more…)

When you think of the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, the first thought that usually comes to mind is the UFC. The Ultimate Fighting Championship has been and still is the premier organization of MMA. The only other organization that has ever been able to compete on the same level was PRIDE FC. However, the UFC eventually bought out the Japanese based organization in March of 2007. The UFC also bought out World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC) and the World Fighting Alliance (WFA). Since that time, there has been no other organization out there that has been able to give the UFC any honest competition. However, there seems to be a little more friendly competition nipping at the UFC’s heels in the forms of rival companies Elite XC and Affliction MMA… (more…)

MMA Bulletin is proud to announce the addition of Gerald Evans to our team of knowledgeable mixed martial arts writers. Gerald has been an avid MMA fan since the mid-90’s and possesses broad experience in several martial arts and in self-defense. This, combined with a Bachelor’s of Science in Integrated Language Arts makes Gerald a very exciting addition and you can certainly look forward to hearing from him regularly each week.

For those interested there are a very limited number of writing positions still available here at MMA Bulletin. If you have knowledge or experience in MMA and would like your voice to be heard then contact the editor@mmabulletin.com.

The rise of mixed martial arts has been meteoric over the last five years, and showed steady growth for ten years before that. Mixed Martial Arts, or Vale Tudo (everything goes) as it was known in the 1920’s, has been around for quite some time, but has only recently taken off and reached mainstream audiences. So many of the sports fans admit to being recent additions to the fan base, which begs the question, what’s the draw? Anyone who is familiar with MMA knows the three letters, UFC, the sports unquestioned largest and most recognizable promotion, but the rise in popularity of the sport cannot be singularly a result of UFC popularity. Over the next few days we are going to explore the top ten reasons for the success of MMA, in order from the tenth most important reason to the first most important reason for success. Without any further waiting, here’s reason number 10.

10. Chuck Liddell & Tito Ortiz
Just like an old western movie, you know who the “good guy” and “bad guy” are. You can identify with the good guy, and you like him, while you despise everything about the bad guy. You cheer when the good guy wins, and you scream, yell, and cuss when the bad guy comes out on top. In the rise of MMA, two men were recognized as the two most polarizing characters in the young sport. Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell was quickly the man fans gravitated to, for so many reasons. He was charismatic, funny, and he could knock the snot out of anyone with his devastating, sledge hammer-like punches. Fans flocked to Liddell, the man with the Mohawk and tattooed head.

For as much as they loved Iceman, they hated Tito Ortiz. Ortiz, an arrogant, brash, but excellent fighter, was the one man that everyone wanted to hate. His attitude was abrasive as anything could be, his mouth was vulgar, and what made all this worse, he was good, damn good. Ortiz, known as “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy,” would rile up opponents with his taunting and disrespect, and then he’d beat them to a pulp in the middle of the cage. The fans hated him, the other fighters hated him, and even the president of the UFC hated him. He was the stereotypical “bad boy.”

With these two playing the roles, fans flocked. In 2002 these two were scheduled to fight, finally. The fans salivated at the thought of their favorite fighter kicking the ass of their least favorite, and the sport’s most cocky fighter. The fight ultimately didn’t happen until two years later. In the end, the good guy always wins and Liddell did win against Ortiz…twice, but not before millions and millions of fans were lured in, hook, line, and sinker.

In a 5 round war Forrest Griffin achieved the ultimate; he became Light- Heavyweight Champion. Forrest was most impressive in his 2^nd round dismantle of Rampage. During the 2^nd round Forrest tore Rampage apart with vicious leg kicks. Rampage’s pain was quite evident. Overall I am very disappointed in Rampage’s show. I found it hard to believe that Forrest Griffin’s kicks had such a great effect given Rampage’s camp includes Michael Bisping and Cheick Kongo. On my personal scorecard I scored it a tie. I gave Griffin a 10- 8 second round and another round, while scoring 3 rounds 10-9 for Rampage. 

The co- main event was less than impressive. Patrick Cote did win the fight in my opinion. Almeida was horrible in the last 2 rounds. Almeida lacked the needed conditioning to take the fight to the ground and when Almeida couldn’t take it to the ground his stand up was not even close to being able to win him a round. Cote showed a tremendous amount of improvement since his quick submission loss to Lutter in the TUF finale. I believe that Cote’s takedown defense was a huge reason why Cote won. The Predator should have let his hands fly a little more in the 3^rd round. I believe that Almeida still would not have gotten the takedown and Cote could have been able to score the knockout had he swung more leather.

Gleison Tibau looked very good in his fight against Joe Stevenson up until Stevenson secured the guillotine submission. In my opinion Joe Stevenson needs to improve his stand up if he wants to make another run at the title.

Tyson Griffin looked excellent in his annihilation of Marcus Aurelio. The only concern for me was when Griffin took the fight to the ground Griffin seemed to come close to falling into a submission but always managed to escape. Griffin showed great improvement in his standup game and repetitively connected to Aurelio’s head, ultimately winning him a decision.

Melvin Guillard exhibited his greatest dominance to date in his fight with Dennis Siver. The young assassin is back and looked his best yet. I believe that Guillard overwhelmed his opponent with his power and athletic prowess. Guillard truly showed he deserves to be in the UFC after his last two losses to Joe Stevenson and Rich Clementi.

Koscheck displayed another athletic beat-down in his destruction of Chris Lytle. Koscheck showed better standup again, but what was truly impressive was his ground attack with elbows in tremendous amounts toward Lytle’s head, maybe a result of his wrestling being out done by the present champ St. Pierre in his last fight. If I was a welterweight I would fight Koscheck soon because he is only going to grow in leaps and bounds for years to come.

Overall the event was good. I wish that Cote would have pulled the trigger and finished the fight. As a fan I was disappointed with Rampage losing, however Griffin has showed tremendous gains since his loss to Jardine. Look for Griffin to do well in the future. Machida may present a problem. Machida did beat Tito Ortiz who beat Griffin but that was awhile ago and Griffin v Machida would probably be a very tough and interesting fight. Fans be on the watch for Tyson Griffin who I believe is a contender in the Lightweight division.

On Saturday night, Elite XC put on its second show broadcasted on CBS. The card had 3 title fights and the main event was a rematch between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith for Lawler’s middleweight championship. This is my recap and final thought on the event.

In the first fight of the night, Shayna Baszler took on Cristiane Cyborg. I took Baszler in this bout, but I was clearly wrong. Cyborg came out from the beginning throwing punches, whereas Baszler was looking to take this to ground. Baszler was able to take Cyborg down, but wasn’t able to do anything from there. By the second round Baszler was gassed and Cyborg was able to score the knockout in the 2^nd round. She thought she won the fight earlier than she actually did after knocking down Baszler. After the knockdown Cyborg jumped on top of the cage in celebration, but realized it wasn’t over once she turned around and the ref told her to continue fighting. It was actually quite funny to watch. A fight between Cyborg and Gina Carano would be a very exciting match up. With both women having unbelievable striking, that fight would have plenty of fireworks. The next fight was between Jake Shields and Nick “The Goat” Thompson for the vacant welterweight title. This fight did not last long. Shields took down Thompson, mounted him and slapped on a modified guillotine choke and ended the bout in 1:03 in the first round to win the Elite XC welterweight championship. I took Shields in this bout. Next up is Stockton’s own Nick Diaz, who faced off with Thomas “Wildman” Denny. I picked Diaz to finish this fight early. This was a very entertaining fight. Denny and Diaz stood toe to toe for the first round, but it only took 30 seconds into the 2^nd round for Diaz to finish off a severely battered Denny to score a TKO victory. In an earlier bout which was not televised on CBS, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva took on Justin Eilers for the vacant heavyweight title. I picked Silva to win because of his awesome punching power and solid ground game. Silva was able to show off both his ground work and his striking in this fight. He was able to wear Eilers down and finished him with a brutal flurry of punches early in the 2^nd round to win the Elite XC heavyweight belt. In the main event, it was the much anticipated rematch between middleweight champ “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler and Scott “Hands of Steel” Smith. I picked Lawler to retain his title. Just as expected, both men stood toe to toe and entertained the crowd. Smith was able to cut open the top of Lawler’s head with brutal elbows, but in the end it was Lawler’s knees to the body which dropped Smith. He got back up, but ate another knee to face that stopped the fight in 2:35 of the 2^nd round.

By the end of the night, I went 4 for 5 in my predictions, which isn’t bad at all. All of the fights very entertaining and unlike the last event on CBS, this card was not riddled in poor production or controversy. The only real criticism I had was the fact that they didn’t air the Silva/Eilers fight. I’m going to assume there wasn’t enough time to do so. Overall I would say that this was a good night of MMA action and I look forward to seeing the next event from Elite XC.

Fedor Emelianenko is reportedly set to defend his newly won World Association of Mixed Martial Arts (WAMMA) heavyweight championship belt on Oct. 11 against another former UFC champ Andrei Arlovski.

After watching Affliction’s first show I can’t help but be excited. Not since the fabled days of Pride FC in Japan have such explosive heavyweight match-ups been possible. The list of fighters on Affliction’s Banned card was like a who’s who of ex-UFC talent with many moments within the fights qualifying as highlight reel material. It seems the management style and treatment of MMA fighters by UFC is starting to catch up with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Of all the Affliction heavyweight match-ups I would like to see, Josh Barnett vs. Fedor is probably the one I have waited for the longest. But considering the Arlovski that showed up the other night (flying knees and all) I don’t think I have much to complain about. There have been calls elsewhere for Affliction to lock down the worlds best heavyweights outside the UFC such as Mark Hunt, Alistair Overeem, and Mirko Crocop. Honestly it couldn’t hurt. Everyone loves to see the very best of the big boys go at it and I think the reason why the 205lb division in the UFC has been such a blue ribbon division has been because of the lack of stacked or consistent talent at heavyweight. The very best at heavyweight have been rather dispersed over the last couple of years.

As far as Affliction’s continued financial viability as a MMA promotions goes there are reports that the maiden event may have come close to breaking even. Affliction’s Tom Atencio is reported as having claimed the event made over 100,000 PPV buys and did a gate of nearly $2.1 million. The involvement of Donald Trump couldn’t hurt either. It feels like a sign of the times that someone of Trump’s caliber has taken an interest in MMA. It can only bode well for the world’s fastest growing and most exciting sport.

Elite XC will be hosting their second event to be broadcast on CBS this Saturday night. There will be 3 championship belts on the line, headlined by the much anticipated rematch between middleweight champion “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler and challenger Scott “Hands of Steel” Smith. Their first bout was an extremely entertaining battle that was cut short by an accidental thumb to the eye of Smith and was ruled a No Contest. In the welterweight division, Jake Shields will take on Nick “The Goat” Thompson for the vacant welterweight title. In the final title fight of the night, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva will fight Justin Eilers for the vacant heavyweight championship. The other two main card attractions feature a female bout between Shayna Baszler and Cristiane “Cris” Cyborg and a welterweight bout between hometown hero Nick Diaz and Thomas “Wildman” Denny.

Now it’s time for my predictions. Let’s start off with Baszler/Cyborg fight. Baszler has a great ground game and more experience, which is why I’m picking her over the relative newcomer Cyborg. Next up is the bout between Nick Diaz and Thomas Denny. Thomas Denny is a well rounded fighter who’s been in this sport for a long time, but he’s still no match for Diaz’s punching power or slick submissions. I’ve got Diaz winning this one early. Next is the heavyweight fight between Justin Eilers and Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva. Both of these guys like to stand and bang and both have knockout power, but I have to go with Silva. I believe he’s a little more durable than Eilers and I don’t know how well Eilers will be able to handle Silva’s power.

The next title fight is between Jake Shields and Nick “The Goat” Thompson. I’ve got Shields winning this one. I think his ground game might be a little to slick for Thompson to handle. Finally, in the much anticipated rematch, “Ruthless” Robbie Lawler defends his middleweight title against Scott “Hands of Steel” Smith. Both guys like to stand and trade punches and if this fight is anything like the last time they faced off, we can expect a brawl. This match really is a tossup that could go either way. I’m giving the slight advantage to Lawler, but I wouldn’t be surprised of Smith is able to pull it off either. Overall, this looks like a really solid card and I think we’re in for a night full of exciting fights.

MMA Bulletin is very happy to announce the exciting addition of two new contributing writers - Henry and James. Both are young, knowledgeable and passionate about MMA which is exactly what MMA Bulletin is all about. You can look forward to hearing their thoughts and opinions on a regular basis as MMA Bulletin continues to grow.

Since making his debut in June of 2006, Anderson Silva has torn through the UFC’s middleweight division. He has dismantled every single opponent he has faced so far inside the octagon including Chris Leben, Rich Franklin twice (the first time was to win the middleweight title), Nate Marquardt and Dan Henderson to name a few. Now that he has wiped out the 185lb. class, the only next logical step for Anderson was to move up and compete in the light heavyweight division.

Silva’s first bout at 205 was against a game opponent in James “Sandman” Irvin this past Saturday. Silva floored Irvin with one single punch and pounded him out in 1:01 of the very first round. Now that he has shown that he can compete with the light heavyweights, who would be next in line to take on Silva at 205? With the light heavyweight division in the UFC having the most talent, there are plenty of interesting matches here. One fight that I would like to see is Silva vs. Chuck Liddell. Two of the best strikers in the sport going toe to toe would not only be a great fight, but it would also be a huge pay per view draw. Another interesting match would be Silva vs. Brandon Vera. Both Silva and Vera are great Muay-Thai fighters and both have a solid ground game. If there was another fight that I would like to see at 205, it would be Silva vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. Silva’s technical style vs. Shogun’s ruthless attack would make for an entertaining fight. Plus, both fighters are former products of the Chute Boxe camp.

At this point, any match for Anderson in the light heavyweight class would not only be an interesting match up, but it would also be a huge ratings draw. The real question is who can actually give Anderson Silva a real challenge? He’s 7-0 since his first UFC bout and he has looked unstoppable in each of those 7 fights. At this stage of his career, I truly believe that if he wanted to, Anderson could be the first man in UFC history to hold 2 championship belts at the same time. The sky truly is the limit for Anderson Silva.

MMAbulletin.com is looking for MMA fanatics who are willing to write 1-2 small opinion/editorial pieces every couple of days based on current news, events, and anything else MMA related. MMA Bulletin is a new up-and-comer in the world of MMA news. Don’t let the new-ness of the site fool you. MMA Bulletin is backed by a growing network of MMA websites which gives you the opportunity to get onboard at the ground level. This opportunity will not last for long.

So, if you have a talent or interest in writing, have some intelligent opinions regarding the sport of mixed martial arts and want your voice to be heard, email me at editor@mmabulletin.com with a small sample piece of MMA focused writing along with some background information on yourself such as age, martial arts training experience, etc.

Mirko CroCop, today, announced that not only is he not retiring from competition he is also returning to Tokyo, Japan to fight.

At one time the Croatian fighter was the most feared striker in mixed martial arts after making a successful transition from K-1. However beyond his first outing in the UFC against Eddie Sanchez, who CroCop staked down and demolished in the fashion fans had come to expect, CroCop has struggled with disappointing back to back losses. The first coming spectacularly against Gabriel Gonzaga ironically via a high kick to the head, CroCop’s own most dangerous weapon, which rendered CroCop unconscious before he even hit the octagon floor.

CroCop still has fights left on his contract with the UFC so it will be interesting to see how this plays out. It seems few fighters have been able to extricate themselves from the UFC without a certain amount of mud slinging and bad blood. Except for his first fight CroCop never looked comfortable on the UFC stage. His home always seemed to be in the ring and in Japan. I personally can’t say I’m disappointed. CroCop has been one of the most exciting fighters to watch over the years and I’m happy to just watch him fight. Wherever and against whoever. If its in K-1 Heroes or World Victory Road with the best of Japanese theatrics so much the better. We may even see CroCop involved in M-1 Global cross-promoted fights. CroCop vs Fedor 2?

A further announcement is expected tomorrow with more details and they will be reported here as they come to hand.